Rainfire
by Kisuminight
Summary: The Inner World is very different from Earth. Naturally, the diseases are different as well. Igneous goes searching for a missing Hunter and finds him ill. Post-series, a look at Flame and Igneous' relationship, differences between the races of the Inner World, and consequences of ignorance (or at least not asking the right questions).


"Oh, and Igneous? Sparkle won't be able to make it to your afternoon training session today. Rainfire." The way the Prince waved away gathering concerns with a smile and half-lidded eyes was all-too indicative of his own. Even if this method of informing the other Spider Riders was mostly an excuse to dodge his paperwork _again_.

Still, "It's not exactly bad news." Everyone knew that if you didn't catch Rainfire young, it got much worse the older you were. In fact, "The Princess is almost a little overdue, isn't she? How's Hotarla doing?" His manacle felt warm on his wrist; a dry, soothing heat over his pulse point, Flame's warm regard. They hadn't been chosen yet when Igneous himself fell ill, but they'd already been friends; Flame had been nearly as worried as Slate, more so, even.

"Hotarla's dealing better than _Uncle Hop_." The protective fury and duty-born anger faded from that name long ago. It helped that Grasshop had always been hard to hate, even immediately after he'd defected. "Part of it is how Rainfire interacts with Insectors. Apparently, it's inverted for them."

Oh. Igneous thought about what it might mean if Rainfire struck the young hardest, and even Flame's reassurance couldn't ease the sudden chill. The Princess suddenly seemed much to young. "Aqune and Potia are in Insector territory at the moment; they would come if we called.

Most Insectors trusted the pair more than the other fourteen. Understandable, given the generations-long war, ut it still rankled. Spider Riders were supposed to be heroes, after all.

"No, it's fine. Textbook Rainfire, right down to the crystal formation. I'm just glad she didn't come down before…" Mantid. The name still felt cold on everybody's tongues. Irregular, the way nobody knew how to say it now, and tangled up in unprocessable emotions.

"I'll see if I can reschedule with Corona and Hunter. If they're determined to be battle partners, they'll need to learn teamwork with Shadow and Venus instead of just as part of their own pair." Not that Hunter and Shadow did particularly well off the battlefield, given the arguing (even if it had lost that edge of cruelty as time wore on). Today had been surprisingly quiet.

"Hey! I heard our names mentioned?" Corona, greeting them with her left hand leading and manacle gem shining in a subtle indicator of Venus' presence to the observant.

"Training session, this afternoon. Hunter and Shadow, too. Do you know where they are?" Probably not in the castle.

"He and Princess Sparkle were supposed to be doing something this morning." That didn't sound particularly likely.

But Corona's manacle flashed in the shadow of her wrist, and Venus projected to the group, "He pestered Shadow into helping him wake up. He was very serious about helping Sparkle and Hotarla."

But, "The Princess is down with Rainfire. She couldn't have met Hunter this morning," Igneous protested.

"He wouldn't have slept through breakfast, and he wouldn't have missed breakfast if he was awake." The Prince's smile turned wry and more than a little amused. "Well, I'm sure you'll solve this mystery; I've got to go check on Sparkle." Amazing how he could make _Sparkle_ sound like _Grasshop, who's going to panic and maybe accidentally set the room on fire_.

Corona shook her head, eyes pensive and deep after they waved the Prince off. "Now I'm worried. Neither of us have heard from Shadow, either."

Igneous curled his fingers across his manacle, and offered a quick prayer to the Oracle fro patience. "Alright. We should use their room as a starting point, just for organizational purposes." Flame's opinions weighted on him, unsaid as they were, and Igneous felt the smile touch his lips under his spider's approval.

So, Hunter and Shadow's room: located a couple floors up and three hallways over. Rather than climb six flights of stairs (and also because they were, perhaps a little, worried), "Flame, Spider Out!" The jump to get him on Flame's back slipped away from his memories, more habit than conscious act. Igneous held out a hand to Corona, catching her as she, too, leaped aboard.

Flame waited patient as a stone, for both riders to settle in their stances before he leaped, balcony to balcony in the clear, open space King Arachna III deliberately designed into the architecture, leaving more room and load-bearing capacity for the sake of the Arachnian Kingdom's Battle Spider allies.

Dismounting at the floor they wanted, Igneous took a minute to lean into Flame in a stoic, silent geture of trust and gratitude. "Flame, Spider In."

"Thank you, Flame," Corona added, her manacle glowing in a manner that suggested Venus privately asking her Rider to rely on her, next time.

At a brisk walk, Igneous and Corona set out. Three hallways over put them near the outer wall, all the doors leading into large-windowed rooms. Hunter and Shadow's was near the end of the hall, if not quite the corner room. Next to Magma and Brutus' if Igneous remembered correctly, though that pair had taken off to check on the harbours, now that peace seemed to be settling over the land with the war declared at an end and the embargo on the Insectors lifted.

Unsurprisingly, the door was closed. Corona knocked lightly. "Hunter, Shadow? Are you two in there?" Not entirely expecting a response, she tried the doorknob. Locked.

"Corona?" Shadow's voice through the wood, but thin and thread with something Igneous couldn't quite place. "Can you come in? Please?"

_Wrong_. Utterly wrong, in the way that would've sent Igneous into a panic if they'd still been fighting, under constant threat of something that could completely corrupt the mind (Mantid had never used a mask on more than Aqune and Portia, thank the Oracle). Sent him into a panic anyway because even for Corona and Venus, Shadow never used that word, never uttered it in a way more begging than confident.

Lips pursed, Igneous motioned Corona out of the way. He didn't ask about the lock; as good a companion as a Battle Spider could be, they mostly got through locked doors by smashing them down. Besides, Shadow hadn't mentioned it, meaning he had enough faith that they could get around it anyway. Fortunately, Igneous trained his skill with locks enough to subvert all the ones in the Palace.

Maybe Igneous would bother the Prince less about paperwork if he'd at least fill out the forms to increase his own security.

Kneeling, he examined the lock. A standard type three, nothing too special. Corona brushed a hand across Igneous' shoulder as he retrieved his lock picks from his boot. "We'll go around by the window." Slipping into an unused room, he heard her call Venus even as he managed to get the first pin to click.

Second.

Fourth.

Sixth, and Igneous nearly threw the door open in his haste. Oracle, he was worried enough to spend the rest of the _day_ lecturing the pair, never mind afternoon training with Corona and Hunter—

Hunter.

So admittedly a lot of the angriest thoughts had focused on Hunter. They hadn't heard his voice and he'd just remembered the windows in this room couldn't fit a fully grown Battle Spider, as evidenced by the way Corona had to vault into the room, leaving Venus hovering outside—some of the really dark ones accused Hunter of leaving Shadow in a room he couldn't easily exit, the sort of childish disregard some of their arguments inevitable devolved to. But it hadn't prepared him for this.

Hunter lay in bed, face flushed nearly as red as his hair and brow sweaty. He'd kicked the blanket off so they could see the golden droplets of crystal that had formed dancing patterns across his skin, deceptively beautiful. The most dangerous were an almost-collar spiking up about his throat and a heavy scale-like pattern putting far too much pressure on his ankle for safety's sake.

"I thought we could deal with it. It's just Rainfire, but then I realized something was wrong and I couldn't call for help or get out." Too quiet. Quiet and exhausted and not like Shadow at all. Igneous didn't know what to do, how he could make this better. You couldn't fight disease with a lance.

"It can't be Rainfire. He's too old for Rainfire." Intellectually, Igneous knew it did happen. Those were usually the fatal cases. "Why didn't he get it until this late?"

"Earthen," Corona breathed like a revelation and a doom curse in one. "What if they don't have Rainfire? What if they don't have anything we have?" Meaning Hunter might not have any vaccinations, not even for the truly deadly diseases like Corpse Script or Weblung.

It was hard to even wrap his head around it. Corpse Script? Sure, fine, that one only had a case or two per year. But Rainfire? How could anywhere not have _Rainfire_? The crystal sickness was practically inevitable.

"What are you talking about? It's Rainfire, I can't think of anything more harmless." Well, at least Shadow was starting to sound like himself again, if with more of an edge than usual.

"The crystal sickness is different for humans," Venus scolded gently. "Do you have anything to keep the crystal projections from blocking his airways?"

"They're not too tough in spikes like that; I can break them off without harm." Thrown full-on into her task, Corona pulled out a clean cloth probably meant for cleaning weapons. She wrapped it around the points of the not-collar, steadily pulling away to try and remove the crystal from Hunter's skin.

With tired determination, Igneous let Flame anchor him in their hearthfire as he dove into the still-gowing web of the current generation of Spider Riders. There was Brade-and-Dagger, a hollow gaping hole, Lumen-and-Ebony whirling gears-inside-gears, the currently-dim sun of Sparkle-and-Hotarla, Corona-and-Venus' deep ocean of conviction, Magma-and-Brutus' mountain-strong determination far away, and father still the mirror-and-ice palace of, "Aqune."

Call initiated, he brought his manacle closer to his face and tried to ignore how Hunter-and-Shadow's riotous jungle of a presence had felt more faded and threadbare than the presence of Brade-and-Dagger who were both gh—alternately present by the grace and thoughtfulness of the Oracle.

"Igneous," Aqune responded promptly. "Is there something wrong at the castle? Any Spider Rider issues?" Igneous liked Aqune despite their history; always professional, he couldn't help but liken her to the training master he and Slate had shared when they first joined the Arachnian Knights. Portia, too, reminded him of Flame, though she had less of a temper.

"Not quite. How much to do know about Rainfire in humans? We've got a fairly serious case." One advantage of the manacle connection—enemies couldn't listen in, or even see the picture of light and movement that formed on the manacle's surface. Not that Buguese was an _enemy_, exactly, but his entire demeanor, while honorable, left him harder to trust than Grasshop's goofy sincerity and joy with the Princess or Portia and Aqune's own acceptance of their actions under the mask.

"Not so much about humans, but I'm sure you've guessed that some of Mantid's policies meant we've had _serious_ before." Right. Because the lack of the Oracle Sun meant more inhospitable weather and less food, on top of a lack of medicinal herbs and vaccines being a primarily human export. That sounded uncomfortably close to a breeding ground for epidemics and plagues.

Igneous leaned on Flame's solid presence in his manacle. "No, I hadn't guessed." He felt an oncoming headache; at least Hunter and Shadow weren't totally responsible for it, this time. "I—look, sorry, right now we need help with Hunter. But when you get back, I'll help you corner the Prince for some talks on policy." Much, much needed talks on policy.

Wait. The Prince had said something before, something about—"Grasshop. Is he going to come down with something, too?" Because that would be a great omen for their budding peace.

"No. He's had Rainfire before, and he's Big Four." Because Mantid wouldn't want to lose one of his top four generals to something preventable, right. "So, first rule of Rainfire: keep the airways clear."

"Corona's on that already."

"Okay. Next, keep them hydrated. Try water flavored with fruit, thin soup, or broth. Rainfire sucks the body dry." Listening to Aqune's voice list all of the things he could do, ways he could help, eased something inside him, the feral, snarling thing that lived in the deepest corner of his mind and so rarely rose to something louder than a hum—and only when helpless, like that first time facing Stags with Corona and nearly watching both she and Venus die, or when Insector Commander Scarab had laid hands on both the Prince and the Princess.

"And lastly, you can crack the crystal with hammer and chisel if necessary, but always hit from the side, and never straight down, and only with a denser cloth in place from the other side to protect from possible shrapnel."

"Thank you, Aqune. I think we'll be able to handle it from here." He let a wry smile creep onto his face, chasing away what he knew to be a grim, worried frown. "Why is Hunter always the troublesome one?" More background than proper attention, Igneous heard Shadow huff out an almost-laugh.

"Talent," Aqune returned, equally dry. "We'll be back by tomorrow, in any case. Good luck. The Oracle is with you, that a chosen bond not be cut so soon."

"Safe travels." The connection cut, and Igneous hopped that _we_ only meant Aqune and Portia. Even if—_when_ Hunter got better, Igneous didn't trust that he wouldn't be too frazzled not to act snippy at Buguese.

"Do we really get another case of divine intervention?" Skeptic, but hopeful, and Igneous turned with Shadow to look at Corona.

"Um, maybe?" Corona paused to press a hand to her heart, closing her eyes. "Not a big one, like with the Oracle Keys, but it feels like the standard blessing that you receive when a manacle chooses you."

"There's a blessing?" Shadow sounded lost and a little embarrassed.

"Yes? There are plenty of Spider-Human pairings, but the manacles are the Oracle's blessing to the ones she favors. They're why we can transforms, and they help speed up our healing after and during battle, just a little." She smiled and shook her head, pinning them both with her gaze. "I forget you and Hunter don't necessarily know these things."

"I suppose that means you and Hunter will be sitting history lessons with the Princess and Hotarla from now on." Igneous sighed, forcing his body to relax. They would be able to attend those lessons. They would.

"I'll go fetch the things Aqune recommended. Will you and Flame sit with them?" Igneous bit down his protest. If he felt useless in this situation, how much more so did Corona feel?

"Go ahead." Igneous scanned the room, looking for a chair he could move to Hunter's bedside. He couldn't call Flame out in such a small space; the room barely fit three humans and a Battle Spider as it was. Yet, the presence of his partner eased some of the longing. "Bring some ice if they have any in the kitchens."

Corona stepped out the window to Venus, and together they disappeared downwards. Climbing down the side of the building always sped up movements more than taking the stairs and hallways inside—normally Igneous didn't allow such a thing, but this was something of a minor emergency.

"Don't worry so much," Igneous told Shadow as he scooted the chair across the room and tried not to make it more reassurance for himself. "He's strong. Do you honestly think he can't deal with a little Rainfire?"

"Venus said they're different, though."

"A lot of things are, it seems." Igneous reflected on the tidbits the Prince had dropped, Aqune's frank admission of things that shouldn't have been a surprise if he'd bothered to think, and Shadow's own startlement. "And while the lack of knowledge about them is understandable, it is not acceptable. Tell me how Battle Spiders view Rainfire."

There was a stilted feel to Shadow's legs as he thought; Igneous may not be able to read Shadow's every thought in the microcosm of body language as Hunter would eventually and had previously shown signs of, but he thought the Spider might've taken too much chastisement out of a simple request for more knowledge.

"Shadow, I'm angrier with myself more than anyone else. I am an Arachnian Knight and a Spider Rider. Not knowing such crucial details about our greatest allies is an inexcusable failing on my part, not yours." No, for all that Shadow was older than Venus, he seemed much less experienced with humans than his battle partner.

Tense mandibles relaxed. "…Rainfire isn't rare, but it's not common, either. I've never heard of any Battle Spider dying from it, but the legends say that only the strongest even get it. Proof from the Oracle that they are the strongest." Hesitating, Shadow's voice seemed to linger over his next thought. "I had it, once."

Ah. "It's not your fault Hunter is sick. He most likely got it from the Princess." Or the Princess had gotten it from him. They'd both been out in that nasty storm last week; this shouldn't have come as a surprise at all. "Rainfire is a little different with humans. You can only catch it once, and it tends to be milder the younger you are. For all our fussing, Hunter is still thirteen and otherwise healthy. It's safest for him to catch it now."

Igneous just wished that they'd been prepared for it.

"We're back," Venus announced as she used her webbing to help Corona maneuver—had they stolen the entire pot of broth from the kitchen? "It's vegetable, carrot, sunpeas, and vinenut."

"I hope you left some for the Princess." Not much of a joke, but not as bleak as he'd thought it would come out. "Did you bring any dishware, too?"

"Right here. And the hammer and chisel." Corona lifted a package of three half-bowls and some towels with suspicious lumps, bound up with spider silk. "I've got some bread, too. Can you believe it's past lunch already?" Was it? He hadn't been monitoring the time, just the heavy oppression of Shadow's mood and the liquid flow-freeze of Rainfire's signature crystal.

Rising, Igneous left the chair to Corona. Taking a towel from the pack of them after a short fight with Venus' webbing, he unwrapped the plain stone mason's wooden-hafted hammer and iron chisel. Carefully, he eased the edge of the towel underneath the edge of the crystal

formation around Hunter's left ankle; there was still a little space to wiggle the whole thing into position, but not much. Not enough.

They needed to get this off, now.

Ankles were important parts of footwork, and without good footwork, a Spider Rider was crippled. So, mindful of Aqune's warnings, Igneous placed the chisel at a forty-five-degree angle. The fell of cool, lifeless metal felt very different from the sunlight-and-hope of his lance. Worried, Igneous switched hands. Flame felt Igneous' fussing and stirred in the manacle; the outpouring of gentle warmth increased, suffusing his skin, and it felt better. Not right, just better.

Picking up the hammer in his other hand, he touched the head to the chisel. Then he pulled back slightly and tried to swing as gently as he could. Metal met metal, but the chisel only chimed softly off the crystal despite the vibration ringing up his arms. Too gentle.

Igneous swung a second time, worrying that it was too hard even as a crack in the crystal opened up with a sound like an Insector machine's cannon. Hands almost numb, he set down hammer and chisel to pry at the crack with his fingers until he could pull away whole chunks. Held up to the light, they sparkled; beautiful and potentially deadly.

Would Hunter know the tradition of keeping a piece to mark your survival? Probably not. And the Earthen boy had learned to fit in well enough that learning what he knew, and what he was clueless about could no longer be divined with a simple look at his face.

Suddenly more exhausted than he'd ever been before, Igneous accepted a miniature loaf of bread and a half bowl of the broth from Corona. He had to set it on his knees to keep his trembling hands from spilling it all over the floor. Even dipping the bread into the broth didn't provoke his appetite, and the bite he took anyway tasted like ash on his tongue.

"So now all we have is monitoring duty." Hurry up and wait. It grated on his need for solutions now just as much as it had when his and Slate's training master had first thrown the phrase in his face.

"Shadow, Venus, and I can stay, if you want to go train." Corona's offer was genuine and well-meant, as always, but Igneous didn't need the sharp temperature flare from his manacle to know she'd annoyed them both.

"We'll stay." Curt, just a little, and disappointed. But he'd curled back the jagged edge of his temper to keep from snapping at her.

"Okay," Corona accepted, and that was that.

The light from the Oracle Sun shifted the sky's hues as the day wore on. Hunter continued to sleep (typical, but better than awake and hallucinating), but his fever fluctuated up and down. Despite proving he had the capability to enter and leave manacle space at will, Shadow stayed out. Venus, too, perched outside the window like a friendly, soothing guardian. Corona and Igneous switched places fairly often, and occasionally paced when the tension spiraled too high. Twice more, the hammer and chisel were necessary.

Only when the oracle sun had gone deep purple and the sky a velvety black, fading to green not dissimilar form Brutus' coloring around the city and the distant horizon-lights made by watch lanterns did something finally change.

Igneous had lit the candles and was contemplating finding a firepot to re-heat the broth and provide additional warmth when Hunter stirred. A low moan started it, followed by a shiver that turned into a full-body shudder as he struggled awake.

"Wh—Corona? Igneous?" Hunter blinked hazy green eyes at them, slowly resolving towards clarity. "Sparkle! Shadow, why didn't you wake me—"

"He tried." Igneous leaned against the wall and allowed his shoulders to drift downwards into something less likely to be considered confrontational.

"Huh?" His gaze drifted to the window, past Venus' silhouette. "That's not morning, is it? Why's it so late?"

"Both you and Princess Sparkle caught Rainfire. You've been sick all day." Corona reached out, squeezing one of his hands in her own. "We've been really worried. Here, let me help you."

"Sick? Why am I covered in this stuff?" With more active participation, the crystal began crumbling away in larger sections. "Is this like an Inner World cold or something?"

"No. You only get Rainfire once in your life." Colds were the bane of every Arachnian Knight and Spider Rider—or just anyone who wanted to do anything productive. It was hard to do anything with a stuffed up nose and only able to get three words out between coughs and sneezes.

"So like chicken pox then?" Presumably. Hunter would know Earthen diseases better than anyone else. "Can't you get vaccinated for it? Ah, vaccines—"

"We have them. And you're getting them. But Rainfire has always been the one big exception." Igneous sighed, straightening up to roll his shoulders. "You should get some more sleep, hunter. Tomorrow is a free day for you, Shadow, the Princess, and Hotarla. You can reschedule your training for a later date."

With a short, cordial nod, Igneous stepped out of the room. He closed the door behind him and leaned on the frame, bringing his left wrist up to rest the manacle on his forehead.

"What was that about?" He heard Hunter hiss, despite the closed door. "I thought we were getting along better than that!"

"Igneous always acts like that after you've really worried him, is all. It's second stage after the fussing." Corona sounded a breath away from giggling. "You should've seen him after my first official mission as a Spider Rider. Right, Venus?"

"Even that wasn't as pad as this, today. He picked the lock, you know."

"Igneous can _pick locks_?"

"Yes? I mean, he doesn't normally carry them because they don't carry through the transformation." More soft laughter. "Usually he just uses them to get into Prince Lumen's study to wrap a blanket around him when he falls asleep doing paperwork."

"Huh. And Sparkle and I, we'll be okay? I'm kina dory we missed our training session."

"You'll be fine with just a bit more rest."

"Of course Rainfire can't keep you down. You're as tenacious as kudzu."

"Hey, bug! I didn't explain that reference so you could use it on me!"

As Hunter and Shadow started arguing, Igneous let a little laugh of his own escape him. Everything would be all right. His team would be alright. At true ease for the first time since this morning, Igneous left to find his own bed. After all, he and Flame would need to be well-rested if them wanted to wrangle the Prince tomorrow instead of letting him slack off to hover around Sparkle, twice as attentive as he'd denied this morning.

**Notes:**

Rainfire is a little like chicken pox (childhood disease, can only get it once). It causes mild paralysis when you have it, which is why Hunter wakes up when the disease runs it's course. Like with sleep paralysis, if you wake up/open your eyes while paralyzed, you may hallucinate something nightmarish preventing you from moving.

I always found it interesting that Igneous is the only Spider Rider who has military training. Yes, Corona and Venus have training, but Igneous is specifically also an Arachnian Knight. He'd be trained to be strong and patient, even though we can see (in the episode with the play), that he does have a bit of a temper/high strung personality. I think this training would also make him accept Aqune and Portia; they were only doing their duty until they weren't, but that is mind control and not their fault.

In the books, the Spiders were telepathic. I'm incorporating this a little bit, but less outright telepathy and more Igneous and Flame don't talk because they know each other so well that they don't need to talk.

All the manacle stuff is head cannon. This includes the idea that when Spiders speak from inside the manacle, they can pick and choose whether it's just their Rider who hears them, or everyone else, too (based on a bit of information that Ebony is supposed to be surprisingly chatty with Lumen, and yet we only ever hear him speak 2-3 times at all).

I also wanted to explore how the manacles could "call" each other, and I used that to do more of the Spider Riders have a profound bond with their spiders bit. This is also where the "only another Spider Rider can hear this call," because they didn't really seem to be afraid of using it, even when there might be (and rightly should have been, given that they were at war) enemies/spies around.

The bit about Shadow being older than Venus but less experienced with people is because he seems experienced with the Inner World (certainly more so than Hunter), but he's been off fighting Insectors, and probably didn't hang out around villages much.

I wish we'd seen more Spiders than the ones who had Riders. Otherwise, how else would people have even known in the first place that a spider-human pair = Spider Rider way back in the beginning of history? So I headcannon that spider-human pairings aren't rare, but Spider Riders are (only being eight) and that makes them special (preserving main cast importance). The bit about blessings/healing–it's a shounen with a bunch of magical girl overtones. How else could they have survived some of the faintly ridiculous things that happened?


End file.
